Am I Falling?
by audaciousaudino
Summary: AU One-shot; all ocs. Contents have been dumped because it really does suck. XD


**Disclaimer; I don't own Maximum Ride or any of the series. I just own the characters I made!**

Welcome to this fanfiction. It is an AU and I doubt I'd use any of the canon characters (maybe as role models?). This is a teaser/oneshot/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. I probably won't add another chapter until I'm sure I'm ready for it and have time to update. Most likely, assuming I'll continue this, I'll write up almost all or all the chapters and post them whenever I feel like it. :/ I don't want to ever put a fanfic on hiatus (too many stories are on hiatus for 2+ years) or give up on it. So... Assume this is a oneshot for now.

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**A Day Behind Bars**

Brooklyn smiled as she woke up. She was in a dog cage, but at least she knew it was going to be better. It was, according to Amber, Sunday. Even if it wasn't, it was this day that the scientists didn't poke them with needles.

Brooklyn stretched out her legs as much as she could. She leaned up to the bars and grabbed them. She stuck her face out of the bars and grinned. "Wakey wakey, everyone."

A few groans were heard from across the room. Brooklyn knew the one to her left. Casey. She wasn't much of a morning person. "Let me sleep for five more minutes," she complained.

Brooklyn shook her head. "No, no, no. Today is the day we count the bottles of soda on the wall."

The cage to Brooklyn's right rumbled. "I'm going to be lazy while y'all do that then." Amber was naturally lazy.

Brooklyn leaned back in her cage and put her feet up as high as she could. It was hard to get comfortable in a dog cage but she made it work. Even if with huge wings on her back.

Being an experiment wasn't the best thing in the world. Kids always wished they could fly. This was not what they would've wanted. Wings genetically placed on your back. Even if flying was fun, it didn't make up for the pain and needles. Putting up with the chemical smells weren't nice. She hadn't known any other smell until her tenth birthday. They let her out to fly and quickly took her back in. Every Wednesday or so they would let her outside to fly after some tests.

"We should break out of here," a familiar voice chimed in. It was Chance. He was the only guy bird experiment Brooklyn and the others knew about. It was just them: Brooklyn, Amber, Casey, Chance, and Caillie.

"I know just how to do it," Caillie added as she moved to face the bars so everyone could hear her better. She was sensitive to light so she always faced the back of her cage.

Brooklyn heard everyone shuffle in their cages towards Caillie's cage. Caillie cleared her throat to prepare herself. "We need to unlock these cages and run." Caillie's serious voice threw Brooklyn off a few seconds.

"Yeah, but we can't do that!" Brooklyn facepalmed. She should've known Caillie wouldn't have come up with something good. She was just an eight year old bird kid.

Amber stuck her head up and slammed into the top of her dog cage. Despite the pain and loud noise, she didn't hesitate. "That can work!"

"_Sure_," Chance mumbled sarcastically.

"We can have Calico unlock her lock with her whisker!"

"No, no, no," Casey muttered. "First, you need to stop calling me Calico. Second, no."

"Why not?" Caillie asked without a thought.

"Because that'll throw me off balance! I have four baby whiskers and I need them for balance!" Casey's calico cat tail flickered with irritation.

"Then take off both," Brooklyn offered.

"Ouch?" Casey crossed her arms and leaned against her cage. Her tipped ears twitched as she heard Brooklyn punch the top of her cage to make a loud noise. "Stop that."

"C'mon Casey. Take a bullet for us." Chance danced in his cage in a sing-song voice.

"No," she muttered and kicked her bars.

"We need freedom. C'mon!" Caillie knocked on her cages.

"Stop making noise," Casey growled.

"Why?" Brooklyn asked extra loudly as she punched the roof of her cage.

"Stop it!" Casey growled in a lower voice as she covered her pointed ears.

"NEVER!" Amber sang as she used her feet and hands to bang on the cage.

Casey roared like a lion. Everyone froze. That was her breaking point. Casey was angry. Taking a deep breath, Casey plucked her two top whiskers at the same time. She slipped her hand out of the bars and unlocked her cage. She growled as she kicked her cage open. "Damn it all," she muttered with anger. She unlocked Brooklyn's cage in a second. She moved to Amber's and unlocked it in another second. Then Caillie's and then Chance's cage.

She moved to the left of Chance's cage and saw a thirteen year old tucked into the back of it. Her rage quickly ran off. "Are you... Are you okay?"

The kid stared at her as he grabbed his knees. His dark eyes followed her. She unlocked his cage and reached out to him, her tail flickering as Brooklyn got up and stretched. The others were reaching out of their cages, watching the boy cautiously.

As Casey reached for the kid, he gasped and was obviously scared. His skin camoflagued into the back of the cage. Casey's eyes went wide as she tried to find him. She eventually found his eyes. "I'm sorry they did that to you," she whispered softly. "Would you like to come escape with us?"

The kid stared at her. "I'll leave this open for you," Casey whispered as she walked towards the exit of the room. There was a room past the exit, then a large field that everyone was flying in. They could escape through there.

The kid didn't budge as the winged experiments followed the cat one. He just kept cuddling his knees.

"Let's go," Casey murmured without any cheerfulness.

"It shouldn't be this easy," Brooklyn warned.

"I bet you they are monitoring us and making this out to be a test," Chance whispered as he looked around for scientists.

"Well let's give 'em a show they've never seen," Brooklyn mused before shoving Casey out the back door.

"I still think its a little easy," Caillie whispered to Chance.

Brooklyn kept pushing Casey and got her out of the last room. The fresh air assaulted them into a feeling of adrenaline. It was time to go.

Casey frowned at them as they piled out. "How am I supposed to escape?"

"I'll carry you," Brooklyn offered. "I know that you can make yourself lighter."

"Okay..." Casey replied with a lack of joy.

"Let's go guys," Brooklyn ran ahead and everyone and jumped into the air. Her wings flashed out. "Ah," Brooklyn murmured breathily. "This hurts because its been so long but it feels so good."

"I don't want my wings to hurt," Chance muttered before jumping into the air with a sumersault. "Well, you were right about the feel good part," Chance smiled as he relaxed in the air.

Brooklyn did some manuevers to exercise her wings as Caillie and Amber joined them. Caillie had white wings with pink tips. Amber white light brown wings with darker brown tips, just like her older sister Brooklyn. Chance had black wings. Casey was wingless, but had (now two) whiskers and a calico tail. If it seems like a useless experiment, it isn't. It's given her cat-like reflexes. She can balance on anything, she always lands on her feet, and she can make herself lighter or do this odd somewhat-of-a-retraction in the bones if she's falling great distances like many domestic cats can.

Brooklyn dived and picked up the now-light Casey. "Let's get out of here!"

"It's too easy," Caillie warned uneasily.

"Oh well," Amber lifted her hands up in a 'oh well' motion.

Caillie just sighed. She was eight years old, yet it was like she was the adult of Amber, who was twelve. Brooklyn was the leader, being fourteen. Chance was eleven and Casey was fourteen.

Despite the age differences, none of them knew how they were chosen and put into one project. Everyone woke up in the cages three years ago. Brooklyn was eleven and Amber was nine. They were the first two experiments. Then Casey came in and she became friends with Brooklyn. _Then I came along..._ Caillie thought bitterly. Last was Chance, who actually only came last year. Everyone else came in the same year.

_What about that kid we saw? Had he been there the whole time?_ Caillie's thoughts were interrupted when a couple of scientists came out. They had tranquilizer guns among a few other gadgets.

"I guess they knew we were serious," Brooklyn mused as she cuddled Casey.

Casey was irritated. "Fight your urge to pet me."

"But you're so soft," Brooklyn whimpered.

Chance was flying upwards while doing twists. Caillie and Amber were catching up fine, but they suddenly felt bad when Chance passed Brooklyn.

Chance was the fastest flyer. He was given the DNA of multiple birds, one of which was a hummingbird. He could flap fast and get far. His heart could handle it, somehow.

Brooklyn was a Bald Eagle, and Amber was a similar hawk. Caillie had a little bit of flamingo dna and some white bird. These worked to everyone's advantages though. Brooklyn could get hawks to follow her, Amber was light like a hawk, and Caillie could withstand lots of water. She was the closest to being able to swim wet. And for some odd reason, Caillie could see almost as well at night as she could during the day.

Brooklyn stuck her tongue out at the scientists below as she missed a tranquilizer dart. "Y'all need to get a better life, fyi!"

They were dots in the sky by the time they stopped flying upwards.

"Where to next?" Chance asked as he swung right to be right under Brooklyn's captive, Casey.

"I think we should head to California." Brooklyn smiled.

Casey was silent up to now. "I'm not fond of being this high. Even if I can land safely, I can't in this situation! You're forgetting that I can't defy gravity!"

"Okay, okay," Brooklyn sighed as she dived until she could see the tops of buildings. The clouds were hanging low today, so she had enough cover.

"You want to leave Nevada?" Caillie asked as she flew above Brooklyn.

"California is nice and warm. I would love to warm my feathers."

"Well..." Caillie was going to object but she couldn't help imagining the heat on her feathers.

"What say thou, team Wings?"

"I agree," Chance and Amber and Caillie said at the same time.

Casey just growled. "I don't have wings."

"Okay, okay." Brooklyn mused. "We'll think of something soon. Still, what says you?"

"...Sure," Casey finally decided.

"We're going to Hollywood!" Chance sang as he did a log roll in the air.


End file.
